Barnes and Noble, the US’s largest book chain, has bought the Fictionwise ebook retailer in a US$15.7million deal. Fictionwise is one of the early ebook stores, having got started back in the Palm days, and has been a good supporter of the emerging industry standard, ePub. It was also quick to support the Apple iPhone / iPod Touch platform with its eReader software being ported to the iPhone shortly after market leader Stanza appeared. Stanza uses Fictionwise to power its own bookstore.
Details, including an interview with Fictionwise head Scott Pendergrast, in this Teleread article.